8 4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



September, when the fishing was discontinued, the whales 

 having left the shore. The result was that the " Norrona," 

 belonging to the Norrona Whaling Company, killed 64 

 whales, and the " Frithjof," belonging to the Shetland 

 Whaling Company, captured 62 126 whales in all. This 

 first success is to be followed by a new station at Collafirth, 

 and doubtless others will soon be added. An unlooked-for 

 capture by one of the whalers was a male Sperm Whale, 

 68 feet long, which was killed out of a "school" of 5, the 

 other 4 making their escape. A considerable " school " of 

 these valuable animals, estimated by some at 30 individ- 

 uals, visited the seas in the neighbourhood of Iceland in 

 the past season, and some 6 or 7 were killed in all by the 

 whalers. 



A writer in the " Shetland News " states that the 

 Finmarken whaling fleet is now owned by half-a-dozen 

 companies sending out 20 steamers ; that at Iceland by 

 ten companies supplied by 30 steamers; and four or five 

 firms fishing from the Faroes employ 7 other vessels. The 

 same authority states that these stations in the season of 

 1902 disposed of nearly 2500 whales of various species, 

 1300 of which fell to Iceland. To these must now be 

 added the two Shetland vessels with 126 whales. The 

 apparatus employed and the mode of proceeding have 

 frequently been described, and there is no need to repeat 

 it here. The Fin Whales have been met with hitherto 

 in altogether surprising numbers, but how long the severe 

 strain to which they are subjected can be sustained, who 

 can tell ? The value of the Norwegian fishery has already 

 fallen from 72,633 krones in 1897 to 27,390 krones in 

 the year 1900. Great complaints have arisen from the 

 Norwegian fishermen as to the disturbance produced in 

 their legitimate occupation by the operations of these 

 whalers, and as the result of an official inquiry by that 

 government whaling along the Norwegian coast has been 

 forbidden within seven kilometres from the land for the 

 next ten years. Probably it is owing to these complaints, 

 which are not of recent origin, that the fishery has been 

 extended to Iceland and the Faroes, and it will be interest- 

 ing to learn what the Shetland fishermen have to say on 



